Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Following an hour-long papal audience with the leaders of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, a Brazilian bishop who was present said that Pope Leo is “not in a hurry” to change Church discipline regarding ministry there—a likely reference to the priestly ordination of married men.

Auxiliary Bishop Zenildo Lima of Manaus, Brazil, spoke of “the Pope’s openness in commenting on the needs and ministerial steps for the Church in the Amazon. With great serenity, the Pope stated that he is not in a hurry with the processes, but prefers more solid, well-defined paths.”

The bishop said that the Pope urged the leaders of the ecclesial conference “not to be in a hurry to try to structure things,” since “certain situations manifest themselves much more as charisms of the Holy Spirit.”

A major ecumenical gathering concluded by issuing a brief message, A Call to All Christians.

After affirming their common faith in the Blessed Trinity and the importance of mission, participants in the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which took place at a Coptic Orthodox monastery in Egypt, said that “in some contexts, mission has been entangled with histories of enslavement, colonialism, and power. Therefore, in our time, mission must be marked by repentance and a reorientation toward decolonization and justice, reconciliation and unity.”

Christian unity “begins to be visible when we live together in ways that embody faith, hope, and love: not in isolation, but in solidarity with those who are marginalized by gender, race, poverty, disability, or ecological devastation,” the participants added.

The first such faith and order conference took place in 1927 in Lausanne, Switzerland; the most recent, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1993. The conference was the centerpiece of the World Council of Churches’ commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. 350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the WCC; Pope Leo XIV will commemorate the anniversary during his apostolic journey to Turkey next month.

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called for prayer and support for the victims of Hurricane Melissa.

“I urge Catholics and all people of good will to join me in praying for the safety and protection of everyone, especially first responders, in these devastated areas,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio.

Naming four Catholic organizations that are providing assistance, he added, “Let us stand in solidarity by supporting the efforts of organizations already on the ground.”

Addressing a UN discussion on conventional weapons, a Vatican diplomat rued the decision of several nations to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty against land mines.

“These weapons inflict indiscriminate and enduring harm on individuals, communities and the environment, leaving a deadly legacy long after conflicts have ended,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. “The fact that they can be inadvertently activated by anyone, especially innocent civilians, makes them incompatible with the principles of humanity and international law.”

Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland have announced their decisions to withdraw from the 1999 treaty; Russia, like the US, China, and India, never signed the treaty.

Archbishop Caccia also criticized rising military expenditures and supported a draft treaty that would prohibit lethal autonomous weapon systems (“killer robots”).

Members of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East met at the Vatican on October 27-28. It was the 17th such meeting since 1994.

The theme of the discussion was “Liturgy in the life of the Church: A comparative study of the Latin and the Church of the East’s liturgical traditions.”

The Assyrian Church of the East (CNEWA profile) ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431.

In a reflection for the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, said that “we must abandon the false paradigm of ‘true religion, false religion.’”

“Religions, for their part, have the responsibility to offer paths of meaning and truth, not of domination,” said Spanish-born Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, SDB. “No religion can appropriate the truth, as if it were its sole owner. No one possesses the truth; if anything, it is the truth that possesses us all, and in every religion there are glimmers of truth.”

The prelate also called for “conditions that allow everyone to live in religious freedom and to find answers to the questions that arise in religions.” (The US State Department has documented restrictions on religious freedom in Morocco, including prison terms for the crime of “undermining the Islamic religion.”)

Bishop Barthélemy Adoukonou, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture from 2009 to 2017, died in his native Benin at the age of 83.

Then-Father Adoukonou was the last doctoral student of the future Pope Benedict at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Pope St. John Paul II appointed Father Adoukonou to the International Theological Commission (1986-1997), and the priest later became secretary-general of the Regional Episcopal Conference of Francophone West Africa (2000-2009).

Pope Benedict appointed Father Adoukonou secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture in 2009; two years later, he was ordained a bishop.

Magnus Brunner, the European Commission’s Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration (or “migration czar”) met with Pope Leo XIV.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to discuss the well-being of Christians in Europe and around the world,” said Brunner. “We also touched upon Europe’s approach to migration, firmly grounded in its values. Brunner also thanked the Pope for his “guidance and enduring commitment to peace and dialogue.”

In an interview with Vatican News, Brunner distinguished legal immigration, “which we need and support,” from illegal immigration, which he linked to smuggling and human trafficking. Criticizing the EU’s oversight of migration in the 2010s as lackadaisical, Brunner said that “we must restore to the people of Europe the feeling that we are once again in control of what happens in Europe.”

Pope Leo XIV thanked participants in an annual interreligious peace conference for “coming here to pray for peace and for showing the world just how important prayer is.”

“Gathered here today, we express not only our firm desire for peace, but also our conviction that prayer is a powerful force for reconciliation,” Pope Leo said at the conference. “Those who practice religion without prayer run the risk of misusing it, even to the point of killing.”

The Community of Sant’Egidio has organized the conference each year since Pope St. John Paul II’s world day of prayer in Assisi in 1986. The theme of this year’s conference, the 39th, was “Daring Peace.”

Victims of sexual abuse have approved a proposed $230-million bankruptcy settlement by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The archdiocese reported that over 99% of the creditors voted in favor of the proposal, including virtually all of the abuse victims. A group of bond investors voted against the deal; they have sued the archdiocese of securities fraud.

The proposed settlement now goes before a federal bankruptcy court for approval, with a hearing scheduled for November 12.